Accountability and Defenestration: The Dalli Saga

The en bloc resignation of the Santer Commission in 1999, against a background of allegations of fraud, maladministration and chronic mismanagement, is still topical, almost two decades afterwards. The European Commission has long been criticised for its administrative inadequacies and for the structural deficiencies in the Union’s system of accountability. There have been a number of reports depicting the Commission as an institution suffering from structural and political irregularities.

On 11 May 2015 the General Court gave a significant judgment on a legal challenge brought by the former EU health Commissioner, Mr John Dalli, against the Commission. Dalli argued that he was forced to resign, by the then President of the Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, without given enough time to consider his legal rights. Rather paradoxically, the General Court ruled that Mr Dalli resigned voluntarily and dismissed the action as inadmissible.

This judgment raises broader constitutional implications. With all due respect, the ruling comes as a surprise and fails to clarify issues in relation to the powers that can be lawfully exercised by the President of the Commission when he loses confidence in any of the members of his Commission. This commentary examines the appropriateness of the recent ruling and concludes that the General Court lost a rather rare opportunity to rule on significant aspects of the Treaty powers granted upon the President of the Commission to sack the individual Commissioners and as a result also fails to remedy the accountability deficits of the Commission.

ESO: Background information: Judgment in Case T-562/12 Dalli v Commission http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-judgment-in-case-t-562-12-dalli-v-commission/

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